Published: Nov. 13, 2024 at 12:45 PM PST|

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Folly Beach is taking precautions to protect the dunes and birds that contribute to the island’s habitat and integrity.

Folly Beach Leaders approved updates to the Dune Management Plan, which protects the dunes that protect the island at the edge of the beach and serve as a critical habitat. Coastal Consultant Nicole Elko wrote part of the plan and calls Folly Beach home.

“The dune management plan is really one of many city plans that helps to address climate change and sea level rise, and this one in particular, really helps the city fulfill the requirements of the federal renourishment agreement,” Elko says.

The dune management plan provides checkpoints and projects to make sure the dunes are not eroding. As a part of the plan, the city is finishing installing protective wooden fences that trap and retain sand on the dunes during the windy winter. Come spring of 2025, teams will plant grasses on the dunes to help root them into the environment.

“Some of the goals are to monitor, restore and protect the dunes. And under each of those goals, we have action items, for example, under monitoring, we measure the beach and dune annually. So we’re looking at the vegetation, how much the dune has grown, if it’s gotten taller, if it has eroded. And these types of metrics help us plan for future renourishments,” Elko says.

Elko says aside from being an aesthetic addition, the dunes serve the island in a lot of ways.

“A wide beach is great, but you need the elevation of the dune to kind of act as a levy against storm surge and protect the community. Then the dunes also provide habitat for nesting sea turtles, for shore birds. Then the final element is, sort of the aesthetic,” Elko says.

Concerning the wildlife and birds, Folly Beach City Council also approved promoting ‘Lights Out Nights’ and asking residents and businesses to turn off non-essential lights at night during critical bird migratory periods in the spring and fall.

Jen Tyrrell is an ornithologist who works with the Audubon Society and lives on James Island. She is working with leaders to raise more awareness about light pollution interfering with bird migration.

“Most songbirds migrate at night to avoid daytime predators, and when they migrate at night, they use celestial cues and stars and polarized light to navigate. And so when they’re flying through the night and buildings are lit up and there’s a lot of reflection from the ground, they get disoriented, and they can run into buildings and structures,” Tyrrell says.

Folly Beach will participate in campaigns to encourage conscious light usage during the upcoming migration times between March and May, and August through October.

“60% of birds that hit a structure like that will die, even if they get up and fly away. You think it was just stunned, but most of them will die within a few days. So it’s very important for their population. And about a billion birds a year will die from building collisions and window collisions. So it’s a huge problem,” Tyrrell says.

Tyrrell says she has seen it herself at Folly Beach City Hall and has plans to petition Charleston to participate in the program before the spring migration. The program asks people to take actions similar to sea turtle protections, and while the birds in question are not endangered as the sea turtles are, Tyrrell says they deserve the same protection from light pollution.

“If you’re looking to reduce your outdoor lighting at home, think about how you need your lighting, or what’s the purpose of your lighting. Is it for safety, using motion sensors? Use it only when needed, and then also have it pointed downwards so it’s not reflecting into the sky causing glare,” Tyrrell says.

Folly Beach leaders like Public Works Director, Eric Lutz, say these are year-round considerations the town looks at to protect the integrity of the island for the people and animals who live there year-round and for all visitors.

“It’s important out here, we try to protect all of our habitat, and we have lights out for turtles, but we realize it’s extra important to cover the birds as they’re migrating. And the dunes are starting to build up now, with the sand fencing that went in, all that will help build and restore the dunes and keep them healthy for habitat,” Lutz says.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Updated: Nov. 6, 2024 at 4:45 PM PST

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Folly Beach hopes to curb a growing need for “cost-friendly” livability by expanding access to workforce housing, but they need opinions to push them forward.

Leaders are asking the public to weigh in on ideas to bring diverse housing options closer to city limits. The idea was first introduced in July when planning commission board members discussed creating affordable long-term rental spaces.

Folly Beach has seen an increase in July long-term rentals after a cap was placed in 2023 on short-term rental options.

“It’s getting to be a bit more expensive to live on Folly Beach, and that’s starting to impact our public safety, our service workers, who are having to move further out and find places they can afford to live in,” Councilmember Chris Bizzell says.

Sarah Piscatelli has worked on Folly Beach for more than a year. She admires the character of the beachfront and its local hospitality.

“I used to live on James Island, made a shorter commute. Since we now own a house in Goose Creek, so a longer commute,” Piscatelli says. “It is so rewarding to work somewhere and commute somewhere that is so beautiful.”

Coworkers and surrounding businesses share a similar experience. The restaurants, cafes and shops lining Center Street say peak tourism season gives them the business and the energy they need, but staffing can be difficult to maintain, despite the potential of higher pay.

Local residents add attainable housing is “no doubt, a need,” but would like to see how it would be done. City officials have confirmed there is not a lot of space in city limits for development.

“I know locals are super passionate about the community we have and are obtaining. I feel like any sort of additional housing, anything built besides whatever is being done already is excessive,” Piscatelli says.

The city aims to have a formal plan by February 2025 that includes details of cost, timeline, location and design. Between that time, leaders expect to hold public hearings and meetings to dispute options.

“We won’t be building high-rises, we can’t build high-rises because we don’t have room. The avenues we want to build through planning commission may look very different than they do in other places,” Zoning Administrator, Jenna Stephens, says. “Planning commission is about to send out a survey we hope business workers will answer, to know how far they live, how far they commute, how much they pay, are they looking for housing on Folly Beach and would they benefit from some sort of help.”

Bizzell says this is the time for “creative solutions,” as it can be difficult to gauge an “affordable” definition for housing. He adds the average single family home could cost anywhere between $3,000 and $4,000 a month.

To submit public comment on this project, you can contact the city of Folly Beach here.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCBD) – Toby’s Spooktacular Sweep, a Halloween celebration, returns for its third year at Folly Beach this year.

The annual beach sweep events kicks off Halloween early on Oct. 27. Participants are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes while they pick up litter along one of the six stations. The family-friendly event will provide Halloween temporary tattoos, slap wristbands, and stickers.

Vanessa Oltmann, founder of Toby’s Spooktacular Sweep, said why she organizes this event around the holiday.

“I decided we need to have fun, so what wouldn’t be better than to do a costume sweep, a spectacular – spooktacular for everyone,” Oltmann said.

The turnout for the event has been impactful to the coastal community by keeping areas within the beach clean.

“We’ve had over 300 volunteers over the past two years and we’ve collected close to 2300 pieces of debris,” Oltmann said.

Toby the Turtle and the City of Folly Beach host the sweep, while they continue to have a partnership with the South Carolina Aquarium.

“The aquarium provides all the supplies and the necessary equipment for us to be able to collect data” Oltmann said. “Which is very important in this world for us to know what kind of debris is in the ocean or on the earth, because everything that’s out there on the ground ends up in the ocean. And we want to protect wildlife, domestic life, marine life, and human life so that all affects us.”

Surrounding the beach sweep, one of the major concerns is plastics. Oltmann said anything that ends up in the ocean or in our waterways, eventually ends up in our bodily systems.

“This data actually helps us to be able to go to the city or any politicians to say look, we have an issue. What can we do to resolve the problem, the founder said. “This is why the sweeps are so important, they make the public aware of what’s here.”

The beach sweep is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. with the costume contest to follow at 4 p.m. along with treats at the participating restaurants. For those who wish to participate, must sign up to receive a wristband and free parking.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Folly Beach has been working on developing a plan in hopes of reducing car accidents and creating safer roads for pedestrians and drivers.

In April, the City approved a contract to develop this Safety Action Plan and leaders have been working on taking the necessary steps to create the most beneficial plan possible ever since.

Some steps they are taking to develop this plan include meeting with community members and stakeholders to get a sense of what improvements should be prioritized. They are also gathering data and audits about the roads, speed limits, and incident locations in the city.

Their hope is to collect all this information, create the Safety Action Plan based on it and then implement those plans.

The city has gathered crash statistics and data regarding pedestrians in the area so they can look at what improvements are needed as part of this comprehensive plan. Thursday evening the city is hosting a public meeting to present this data to the community and gather feedback on what safety improvements they would like to see.

The city is looking to narrow down the necessary projects and problem areas. For example, there have been several pedestrian incidents near Center Street, so that may be a project area they choose to prioritize.

Katie Zimmerman is the executive director of Charleston Moves, an organization that works toward building a safer and more accessible community for pedestrians and cyclists.

She says she anticipates this plan will take a year to complete before they can take action, but she shared how important this process is for community members to express their feedback.

“The best thing from the community is just to continue to participate in the process and make sure folks are letting the planners know what they’ve experienced, and also what their ideas are for safety improvements and where,” Zimmerman says. “You know, most of us are not engineers, but we certainly have experienced the situation in the community, not just Folly Beach, but throughout the county. It’s pretty dangerous for those of us who are biking and walking.”

Zimmerman says that pedestrian safety is a major issue across not just the Lowcountry, but throughout South Carolina.

Many other cities and municipalities have chosen to also develop Safety Action Plans and Zimmerman hopes those can help bring more of these changes to the Lowcountry and encourage a connected, safe environment for pedestrians.

Zimmerman says that, to bring these plans to fruition, the council must implement certain policies aimed at eliminating pedestrian fatalities and develop the plan so they can qualify for federal funding for the actual installation of these projects. Those also help them to better leverage future project plans.

One of these policies is a “Target Zero Plan,” which would set a goal to get the number of traffic fatalities down to zero by a certain year.

Zimmerman says pedestrians, and human beings in general, need to be the top priority.

“Everywhere pedestrians should be No. 1 in transportation planning,” she says. “Human beings are the most vulnerable, especially when they’re not in a car and obviously cars are now being built to be safer for people in the cars and not as safe for people who are outside of the cars, so we have a situation on our hands. South Carolina is a dangerous place for vulnerable road users.”

To Zimmerman, intersections, bridges and paths should be designed so well that it is safe enough for an 8-year-old to cross it, and she hopes that is what comes of the Safety Action Plan.

Thursday evening, the City of Folly Beach will be hosting its last scheduled informational drop-in session to gather community feedback on the development of the Safety Action Plan.

The meeting will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and will take place at the Folly Beach Community Center located at 55 Center Street. The meeting is open for anyone to come and provide their input.

More information on the meeting as well as some of the crash data that will be presented can be found here.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Published: Oct. 24, 2024 at 7:45 PM PDT|

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - Folly Beach residents came out to an informational drop-in session Thursday night to review the city’s Safety Action Plan and had the opportunity to provide feedback on the study.

The goal is to come up with a plan of potential opportunities to enhance safety on Folly Beach roads for pedestrians and drivers.

The city started developing the Safety Action Plan earlier this year and since then they have been collecting and analyzing data based on crashes that happened in the city between 2017 and 2023. The study goes into more detail about where the crashes occurred, how severe they were, what kind of crash it was whether it be vehicular, pedestrian or bicyclist, as well as when it happened.

The transportation planner for Kimley-Horn who is helping conduct this study, Laura Kelly, said that they have looked at various areas to help improve roadway conditions.

“SCDOT has a traffic-calming program that we would consider partnering with and doing speed cushions along the island in low speed and low volume areas,” Kelly said. “Indian Avenue and Center Street as kind of like a mobility project, so we did sketch a roundabout here as a potential opportunity, but we definitely wanted to engage the public at this point and hear from them what they’d like to see.”

Along with improving mobility, additional bicyclist and pedestrian safety measures are a key part of this plan. Some potential ideas include a multi-use path, pedestrian refuge spaces, which are safe designated areas for pedestrians to cross the street, as well as additional lighting.

“Looking at pedestrian and bicyclist crashes things are pretty spread out throughout, so we’re of course taking a focus on Center Street where there are the highest traffic volumes, but we’re also looking at both ends of the island and then also the causeway,” Kelly said.

Residents and community members who went to the meeting mentioned concerns of bicyclist and pedestrian safety along various parts of the city, especially Ashley Avenue and Center Street.

“Coming to Folly is such a fantastic place to walk around and bike around, but we do have a history of crashes and being able to mitigate those and reduce them and hopefully get rid of all injuries and fatalities over time would be great,” Folly Beach resident Kyle James said.

He said that he heard similar comments from other residents who came out to the meeting as well.

“Talking with residents who have been here even longer than me. Getting kind of the history and what they want their city to feel like over time and how it’s shifted and that the need for more biking and pedestrian infrastructure has grown and it’s kind of come to the forefront,” James said.

After Thursday’s meeting, Kelly said that they will take the feedback that they got, put together a final list of potential projects and submit a grant application for them in the spring to the United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Program.

If that grant is awarded Kelly said the city could then begin putting some of those projects under contract.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.